This situational brief examines the peace support operations (PSOs) and conflict management strategies of Rwanda’s forces, the SADC Mission to Mozambique (SAMIM) and the Training Mission of the EU (EUTM) in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique and outlines some of the challenges and successes. It contends that the conflict management strategies employed represent a double-edged sword for the country. The more progress that is made through military interventions in stabilising the conflict, the less emphasis will be placed on the need to deal with the underlying drivers of this conflict. Peace acquired in this way is piecemeal, and the return of conflict is but a stone’s throw away from the day of exit of the deployed peace enforcers.

Moreover, the new equipment, training and funds provided to the security sector, without an equitable emphasis on the legitimacy and accountability of the sector will enable a largely predatory security apparatus to strengthen and reinforce itself. The corruption of, and violence meted out by, the security sector was an underlying cause of the conflict. This paper furthermore asserts that this conflict requires a broader political solution that sees as its foundation the development of a new social contract between the state and all its citizens, and it requires much more engagement at community level to assess their peace and security needs and their inputs for reintegration and victim-centred justice and reconciliation.